The use of spray-drying is a known method for the production of powdered compositions, such as powdered nutritional formulas. Different processes are known for preparing such spray-dried products. Prior art processes are for instance described in Food Product Design (May 1997): “Spray drying: innovative use of an old process” by R. C. Deis. WO 94/28993 A1 discloses a modified drying process using superheated steam in the drying medium.
NL 8602710 discloses a method for producing a food product in powder form whereby a starch-containing starting material present in form of a slurry is steam heated and dried and whereby the slurry is dispersed by steam injection.
However, it is still a continuous aim to increase the production capacity for powdered nutritional formulas, for example infant milk formulas. An increased capacity will allow a factory to produce more powder and to reduce the production cost per quantity of produced powder. However, increasing the process capacity regularly results in negative side effects. Negative side effects very often include a decreased quality of the powder. For example, infant formula powder should have a good wettability, that means a short time that powder stays on the surface of water before dissolving, a limited amount of white flecks, which are protein precipitates visible on the inside of a milk bottle after emptying, and a good bulk density. A reliable and reproducible bulk density in the process is particularly important as preparing a nutrition from a powdered composition is usually done by adding a predefined volume of a powdered composition to a liquid. For example, for infant nutrition usually a given number of scoops per bottle is added. Deviations in bulk density of the powder can disturb the concentration of nutrients or nutrient requirements of the infant.
Furthermore, the negative effects of heat should be limited, i.e. the occurrence of Maillard reaction products should be limited since Maillard reaction products are undesired in the powder.
Thus, a technical problem underlying the present invention is to provide methods and means for overcoming the disadvantages associated with the processes in the state of the art.
A further technical problem underlying the present invention is to provide cost-effective methods to produce with an increased production capacity powdered compositions, especially powdered compositions containing fat, protein and carbohydrates, for instance powdered nutritional formulas, with high quality.
A further technical problem underlying the present invention is to provide powdered compositions, especially powdered compositions containing fat, protein and carbohydrates, which exhibit improved properties, in particular improved technological, functional and/or organoleptic properties and methods to produce them.